After many years of efforts the Chios Disability Association managed to acquire the funds to develop the Mixed Day Center included in the National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF) of Greece. The President of the Association, Mrs. Sofia Mihaila, announced the news at the New Year Celebration of the Association on the 10th of January 2018, held at the Cafe Garden in Chios, Greece. The Center will offer 20-25 children, who are not yet accommodated in another structure a vital space for their future. In the broader sense the Center will not offer just a shelter and a getting together, but will aim at lifelong training towards employment, so that learners can make use of their potential. Renovation will start in the coming months and will be completed in 2020. The project budget rises to 960,000.00 euros, including the renovation, the equipment for the Center and a special coach. 

The President of the Association thanked all those involved in the design and the submission of the project, leading to its approval by the Region of North Aegean (NUTS II EL41), especially the Director of the Managing Authority. Mr. George Plakotaris, the Directorate of the Technical Services of the Regional Unity of Chios and most especially Mr. Christos Kartalis, and the economist Miss Katiana Chouli, from ARTIFACTORY, who have volunteered to author and submit the proposal, along with all the regional councilors, who irrespectively of their fractions, have supported the signing of the Subsidy Contact with the Region of North Aegean. In the frenzy of the liquid, money making and show-off society we live in, the duty to support fellow citizens and disadvantaged groups is to a great extend forgotten. However, the question “to help or not to help” is not only a “literary question”. It is a social question. The notion of “helping” should not be connected to the Victorian notion of charity, or just the pragmatic notion of “caritas” of St. Francis, defender of the poor. 

A society that is sharply distinguishing between “the self” and “the other” can neither thrive, nor progress. It can only slide back to a Darwinian regression, where violence is the law of settling the matters, away from reason, abstract thinking and civilization. “Helping” the seemingly weaker and disadvantaged is not a show or demonstration of civic manners, or an expression of an imposed moral code. It is an investment in our own progress, in our own humanity, in our won civilization. It our internal ethical code, for the personal thriving in a civilized society. 

Many before us have expressed similar thoughts with more valuable words. Words, which became the pillars of the Western civilization, the pillars of human rights, the pillars of our common ground. If you wish to enjoy an outstanding example from the Golden Age of Classical Hellas, please click on Perseus Digital Library. It will take you to one of the most distinguished e-Library in Classical Studies, which offers the treatise of Lysias “On the Refusal of a Pension”. 

 You will discover an ancient, but brave world.